Kung-Fu Mahjong 2 (Hong Kong 2005)

Fanny (Cherrie Ying) is a mahjong phenomenon and a loyal housewife to her husband Johnny (Terence Yin), who forbids her to play the game. Johnny's boss, Demon (Keung Ho-Man), invites the young couple over for dinner and to offer Johnny a promotion in his dirty gambling ring. They're also introduced to Demons sister Curvy (Zuki Lee), who is making moves for Johnny's affection. Fanny, being asked to leave after making a scene with Curvy, meets up with her brother Ronaldhino (Sammy) and her Mahjong sisters Auntie Fei (Yuen Qiu), from the first KFM also brings back her husband Chi Mo Sai (Yuen Wah), and First Love (Tiffany Lee), who were all tought by master Three Tiles (Wong Tin-Lam). Fanny shares with her sisters her problems in the love department and they give her tips on how to keep her man interested. When she plans to implement her new love tips, she finds out that Johnny is leaving her for Curvy. Now, with the loss of her husband and her mahjong skills, she tries to end it all, but her sisters won't allow it. Now it's time for Fanny to train and refocus in order to get revenge and win the Mahjong tournament.

Well, if you're not a fan of Wong Jing or his movies, KFM2 won't make you one. But one thing is for sure here is a lot more Mahjong than Kung Fu in Kung Fu Mahjong 2 (雀聖2自摸天后). If you're familiar with the rules of the game, that will help you enjoy the movie a little more, if at all. The attractive Cherrie gets her first staring role in KFM2, but she comes off as a little too corny and really kind of annoying. Tiffany Lee, Sammy, and the rest of the cast all do their part, but again, the performances are nothing to write home about. Granted, there are some funny parts, but then there are some parts that are just hard to watch. They throw in a few topical jokes, as well as some jokes aimed at making fun of movie stars, but they all fall flat. The story is completely by-the-numbers and shows no signs or originality. So if you saw the first one, and want to see what happens to this cast of characters, go ahead and give it a try so you can find out what happens when you're "self-made". (CBKevin)

Swing Girls (Japan 2004)

Tomoko Suzuki ( Juri Ueno) is spending her summer in a remedial math class. As her teacher, Ozawa (Naoto Takenaka), continues droning on, Tomoko peers out the side window and notices the schools Brass band gearing up and heading out to support their baseball team. As the bus leaves, the Brass bands catered lunches show up. So Tomoko and the other girls volunteer to take the lunches to the game. While on the way, the girls dine on one of the lunches. When they finally arrive, everyone receives a lunch except dorky Nakamura (Yuta Hiraoka), whose lunch was eaten. Due to a little carelessness from the girls, all the lunches were spoiled due to the heat, and in turn, makes the whole Brass team sick...everyone except Nakamura, who wanted to quit the team anyway. So with the Brass team out, Nakamura holds open auditions to get a new Brass team together, because the school still has to have a band. Tomoko and her friends show up, along with a stream of wannabes, but there are only sixteen of them, making the team far too small to play as a complete Brass band, but just enough for a jazz group. Now that they're together, can Nakamura really teach these girls to play anything?

When an idea as simple as Swing Girls presents itself, there can only be one thing that makes it stand out and that is it's execution. As for Swing Girls, it has a shine and charm that makes it very enjoyable to watch. You get to see the girls come together and learn the music, the instruments and rhythm, make a band and keep the band, all the while feeling like you're on the journey with them. It's not something that feels forced. The girls all take turns with their different traits, the shy one, the boy crazy one, the chubby one and so on, but it really doesn't get in the way or become over played. Swing Girls just turns into a story about the girls themselves and their love for the music. So just smile, laugh and enjoy the simple, yet entertaining ride that happens when these girls discover the beauty in jazz. (Converter)



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Scared (Thailand 2005)

Phii May (Sumonrat Wattanaselarat), is leaving home for her freshman year at college. To celebrate the arrival of a new student, a trip is planned. While going through the rain forest, the bus full of kids come across a small outpost where a local warns them that they can't take the road ahead of them and that they'd best go home. Outraged, the group of kids are interrupted by a mysterious stranger who says he'll show them the way for a ride. Once inside the rain forest, the landscape reveals various odd shrines and an old, long bridge that the bus attempts to cross. Less than halfway across the bridge, it begins to break and the bus falls into the river, killing half of the kids on board. The survivors disperse and find a small abandoned town just in
time to find out that someone is responsible for killing the students off.

Pakphum Wonjinda brings us a "teen slasher" movie that does a few things right, and does it's best to spice up it respected genre. The deaths of the kids are quite gory, which is a plus, and you do get a pretty high body count. When the killing starts, the kids start dropping like house flies! The atmosphere of the deep rain forest, followed by the small town, does its part in creating a hopeless, lonely feeling for the cast. The characters are incredibly one-dimensional, which is fine due to the fact you don't get enough time to figure out who is who anyway! So don't look for any character development here. The plot isn't a brain teaser by any means, it simply gets the kids to where the killing takes place, but it does try to spice things up at the end. If you're a fan of teen slasher films, horror, or just want to see some original deaths, you might find something to smile about in Scared. (Converter)